The most explosive cryptocurrency these days is not bitcoin

Bitcoin
BTCUSD, +4.09%
has, for good reason, dominated the financial headlines lately, but its sizzling performance over the past month pales compared with what’s happening in another corner of the crypto market.

IOTA, which bills itself as the “backbone” of the internet-of-things economy, has seen a surge of almost 800% since early November, with most of the gains logged in the past few days. This chart puts the move into perspective:

The fierce rally has its total market cap approaching $12 billion — enough to vault IOTA into the top five of all cryptocurrencies, ahead of Ripple and almost halfway to bitcoin cash. Still a long, long way to go to catch bitcoin, of course:

The spike in interest follows reports that several high-profile technology companies, including Microsoft
MSFT, -1.33%
are teaming up with the German nonprofit overseeing IOTA on a marketplace for selling data that would otherwise go to waste.

“At present, up to 99% of this precious data gathered is lost to the void,” IOTA co-founder and CEO David Sonstebo told CNBC about this “sleeping giant” earlier this week. “IOTA incentivizes sharing of data through its zero-fee transactions and by ensuring data integrity for free on the decentralized distributed ledger.”

IOTA topped out at $5.55 amid some serious volatility Wednesday, with its price since dropping toward the $4 mark.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.